E Reading Little Women

"Jo was the first to wake in the gray dawn of Christmas morning. No stockings hung by the fireplace, and for a moment she felt as much disappointed as she did long ago, when her little sock fell down because it was so crammed with goodies. Then she remembered her mother's promise and, slipping her hand under her pillow drew out a little crimson-colored book. She knew it very well, for it was that beautiful old story of the best life ever lived...." Beginning of Chapter 2, A Merry Christmas, from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

I have a sneaking suspicion that Santa might bring a couple of E Readers here to the Santarsiero household for Christmas, you know, Kindle, Nook and the like. I downloaded Barnes and Noble's Nook for the PC just to see what all of the fuss was about. If you don't have a Nook you can download and use Nook for the PC right to your computer for free without owning the actual device. There are loads of free books you can get in an instant. I must say that I am impressed. I resisted the notion of ever being able to take pleasure in reading in an electronic format. I love books and glorious magazines. The old fashioned paper kind. I love the feel of them, the smell of them, the way they look stacked up on a shelf or table just beckoning me to take a break and escape into a story. No one that I know loves books as much as my 19 year old daughter, Laura. She is constantly writing and reading. She takes more books out of the library than anyone I know (yet still loathes the Dewey Decimal System) and spends every dime she has on books. She agrees that no electronic device can ever replace a real book for a true bibliophile.

Having said that, last night while The Mister was outside with the cable guy trying to figure out why our internet connection was screwy, I had the Nook version of Little Women up on my computer screen. After a few minutes I felt the familiar presence of Laura reading over my shoulder, drinking a hot cup of tea. I call her the 'grammar nazi' because she is constantly criticizing me when she sees the way I sometimes send out emails or instant messages with no capitalization, punctuation, etc. Homeschoolers! Sheesh! Anyway, even she was intrigued by the E Book. Within minutes she was reaching over my shoulder to get the mouse and clicking on all of the highlighted footnotes and annotations throughout the page to discover more information, definitions, and the like. Very cool indeed. So many of the classics and others are available and for free! I can see what a wonderful resource this could be for students who need to read books for book reports for school assignments.

Anyway, getting back to Little Women, I especially enjoyed the notes in the beginning of the book with the introduction and The World Of Louisa May Alcott. If you love Little Women, check out the Nook version. I think you will enjoy it if you have never read it before. It might come in handy on those snowy Winter days like this!

P.S. Do you love The Pioneer Woman? Who doesn't? Here's a link to a wonderful printer giveaway over on her Tasty Kitchen blog!
Have a happy day, my lovelies!
xo xo ♥ CS